News and Analysis

Word of Mouth Remains Vital for Loyalty in Digital Age

Pundits have speculated that loyalty is becoming less and less important as mobile and especially voice search drive the consumer toward the most convenient purchasing options. That may be true, but the report indicates loyalty remains a powerful factor, with 53% of consumers saying they are more likely to buy from a retailer they know and trust.

Retail Insights: Inside The Vitamin Shoppe’s Omnichannel Strategy

The data that The Vitamin Shoppe collects in its CRM is used to create 360-degree views of each customer so that in-store associates can see in real time when customers have earned new awards and offer more personalized product recommendations based on previous purchases.

Consumers Still Do Not Understand How Companies Use Their Data

More than one year after the implementation of GDPR in Europe and with CCPA looming, consumers still have no idea how and why companies like Google and Facebook collect their data. That’s according to a global survey by mobile marketing firm Ogury, the largest of its kind to ask consumers about their understanding of marketing and privacy.

Nearly 40% of respondents in both Europe and the US were ignorant of what GDPR is. But more significant is that 52% of consumers report not understanding how their data is used.

Commentary

Selling to SMBs: AIDA and The Conversion Zone

I’m often asked by entrepreneurs and venture capitalists alike to talk about what changes throughout the course of the “bell curve ride” in selling to small and medium-sized businesses — and how organizations need to adapt at each stage in order to ensure continued success. Here’s the best way I can explain how it all works.

The Increasing Impact of Reviews and Google+ (?!) on Local SEO

Some new data has given us some “big time insight” into how Google is using authoritative local sites to inform local search rankings, says David Mihm. Mike Blumenthal agrees, saying that the prominence of local review pages and appears to be “transferring prominence directly to the local entity in a way that is totally independent of links.”

New Report Shows Urban SMBs Do Better with Agency Help

Street Fight’s new analysis, The Urban SMB Report, indicates that local business owners in big cities get better results from their digital marketing efforts by not doing it themselves. The more they outsource, either to internal staff or to an agency, the higher their satisfaction rating. But there is room for improvement.

Latest Posts

How the Tech Emerging From CES Could Impact Local Advertisers

While some of the consumer-facing products that made headlines won’t hit store shelves for months, there was plenty to learn from the show for anyone involved in media, software, content, and design. Here’s a look at how some of these technologies could impact advertising planning and creation right now.

Street Fight Daily: DoorDash’s Unicorn Hopes Fall Short, Rite Aid’s Massive Beacon Program

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… DoorDash Struggles in Quest for $1 Billion Valuation (Wall Street Journal)… Rite Aid Preps One of the Largest Beacon Activations (GeoMarketing)… The Goldman Sachs Note Behind the Theory that Apple has Figured Out How ‘to Starve Google’s Core Business Into Irrelevance’ (Business Insider)…

Openings and New Hires at GoDaddy, Revel Systems, Gatehouse Media

Every two weeks, Geoff Michener covers some of the latest job changes taking place in this dynamic industry. In this week’s column, Shopify appoints a new COO, the Morning Call has a new publisher, and a digital sales vet is promoted at CBS.

Raise Report: PlaceIQ, Movinga, Toast, Euclid Analytics Rack Up New Rounds

Every two weeks, we round up some of the biggest fundraises taking place in hyperlocal marketing, commerce, and tech. This week’s edition includes new cash infusions for Blueshift, Carwow and Care24.

LBMA Podcast: CES Beacons, GM and Lyft, Reveal Mobile CEO

On the show: EyeLock & Diebold rename the ATM “Irving”; Screen commerce by Think&Go; Billy Bishop Airport DOOH’s the tunnel; Faking human stench to fight Dengue Fever; Emirates + Millennial Media; AT&T, Cisco, IBM, Intel and the city of IoT.

Street Fight Daily: Foursquare Gets a New CEO, How Apple’s iAd News Affects the Industry

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… Foursquare CEO Steps Down as Valuation Plummets (Wall Street Journal)… What Apple’s iAd Changes Mean for the Industry (Digiday)… How Google’s Search Chief Has Been Living the “Mobile First” Life (Search Engine Land)…

Dealmakers: On-Demand and Deep-Linking Companies Born Under a Lucky Star

Two areas in the industry I see creating genuine value are in-app search, or “deep linking,” and on-demand tech. In both cases, the value these two segments of our industry bring is in the efficiencies they create. In other words, where and how they reduce friction in consumer transactions is where we will see 2016 investment and M&A activity.

Menu for Success at Brooklyn’s Corner Media: Food, Crime, Homes and History

The eight sites of Brooklyn’s Corner Media Group stretch from northwest to southeast in New York City’s most populous borough. We recently caught up with the network’s publisher Liena Zagare to talk about about her growing hyperlocal empire and the formula behind its success.

Street Fight Daily: The Trouble With “Uber for X” Companies, Apple Moves Away From Mobile Advertising

A roundup of today’s big stories in hyperlocal publishing, marketing, commerce, and technology… ‘Uber for X’ Will Fail in 2016, but Uber Will Continue to Thrive…Why? (Recode)… Apple Steps Back From Its iAd Advertising Business (BuzzFeed)… How Mobile Apps Stack Up Against Mobile Browsers (eMarketer)…

Vistaprint Launches Local Listings, Providing a Broader Service for SMBs

Vistaprint, which provides print and digital marketing products for small business owners, announced today that it is launching a presence management tool which SMBs can use to update information about their business on over 100 local directories.